A Moment Too Late
by NadejdaHope
Summary: It has always been him that walks out on her but what happened when fate decides Cloud gets left behind? 'Hey Zack and Aerith, I'm still waiting for you guys to tell her that she has no place there too,' Cloud thought to himself as he raised his head to the sky. Cloti angst.


A/N - Hi~ It's been sooooo long since my last update but this just came up out of the blue and with the announcement of a Remake, I can't help but to write something for my favourite pairing on the planet. I'm a bit rusty with the years of just reading instead of writing but here goes. And it's unbetaed. Enjoy!

Disclaimer : Nope, last time I checked I'm still not the owner of this franchise. If not it'll be loaded with Cloti *coughlemoncough*

"You're being silly!" Her laughter was like a musical to his ears. She was laughing whole heartedly as she waved at him. He made his way to her, careful enough not to trip in the killer high heels he was wearing. He didn't really understand why women adore those.

Everyone at the bar was looking at the three of them, Barrett wearing a brown-coloured dress and with a tiara on his head. Vincent, donning a blood red dress with golden sparkles on it, also with killer heels, trying to keep his face stoic with all the attention they were getting.

"I'm gonna kill those two," Barrett muttered under his breath, as they reached the bar where she was standing, with her hands on her hips, face lit up with amusement.

"I can't believe you did this!" She made very little effort to save his ego as she inspect his face, now made up by Yuffie and she made him twirled, to see his dress, still laughing.

"Tifa..." He said finally, a failed attempt to sound stern, as he originally had planned.

"No! No! You're all really pretty. Really!" She was trying to sound polite but he knew it was her being sarcastic. "And purple really brings out the colour of your eyes."

Vincent was just groaning and looked annoyed as he took a large sip of his drink, while sitting carelessly on the bar stool. He threw daggers stare to those who dared to look at him. Yep, he still managed to be creepy even when he was still dressed up as a woman.

"All right peeps!" Yuffie's voice echoed throughout the bar. "As you can see we have three beautiful ladies in the house that will act as your waitresses tonight!"

The whole bar applauded and roared. He took a deep breath and blew it out, chanting every mantra about calmness that he knew.

"And since it's our favourite bartender's birthday today, so Tifa," Yuffie came towards Tifa and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the centre of the bar. "You're getting a full break tonight, birthday girl."

Yuffie pushed Tifa to a seat and placed her hands on Tifa's shoulders to keep her in place before putting on a small tiara on top of her head.

"Come on you girls, get to work!" Cid hollered from behind the bar, his cigarette bud still on his lips. "Bring out the cake!"

The three of them sighed and moved around the bar, that was when the whole bar erupted into catcalls and whistles, much to his irritation.

He blew out his breath again and caught her eyes from where he was standing. Her eyes were glassy and she had her hands on her lips, trying to control her tears, obviously.

The sight calmed him immediately and he reminded himself the reason why he agreed to this ridiculous plan of Yuffie that night.

Tifa had always been handling the bar by herself for many years and of course it was a job well done. But one thing she never had was a break. That was why Yuffie had this crazy idea to help her out by hiring 'three beautiful waitresses' for her birthday night, so that she could take a break.

His thoughts were interrupted when they started singing her the birthday song and when she blew off her candles, she caught him looking at her.

She smiled brightly to him which he returned with a nod, a small smile barely passed his lips.

"Move your goddamn ass, blondie! These people are parched!" Cid commanded with a lopsided grin and he refrained every nerve in his body from connecting his fist to Cid's jaw. Cid and Yuffie were the mastermind.

He made his way behind the bar and grabbed a bottle. He studied the label.

"Okay, let's do this."

He saw her doing this every day, this should be simple. He saved the world many times before compare to mixing a drink.

"Hurry up!" Cid yelled again.

"Shut up, Cid!" He replied and poured the content of the bottle into a few tall glasses and passed them around the bar.

A few people tried the drink and they made funny faces, "What the heck is this?"

Yuffie ran towards the bar and pointed to a few bottles, "You're supposed to mix that stuff together."

He looked at Yuffie, "And how am I supposed to know that, exactly?"

"Aww come on, Spiky! You always watch her anyway! Don't you learn a few things?" Yuffie sounded frustrated as she tried to mix the drink herself.

He looked around confusedly. This wasn't going to end well.

"Umm, Barrett is pointing his gun to a customer," Cloud pointed out to Yuffie. Yuffie turned her head and yelled, "Barrett!"

He heard Barrett cussing in a really loud voice and a man was cowering in front of Barrett.

Yuffie dashed to Barrrett and tried to calm things down.

He turned to Vincent who seemed like he was doing well, until he saw a group of men trying to touch his butt. Vincent tried not to snap but Yuffie saw the whole thing from where she was standing.

"Nah-ah! Leave the one in red alone! He's mine!" She practically jumped into that group of men and stood in between Vincent and the men.

He sighed again.

When he saw Tifa got up from her seat with a smile on her face while shaking her head, he almost fell to his knees to thank the heavens.

"Alright, alright. I got your back," she announced as she took the place next to him.

He passed the bottle to her and she took it. She let her hand covered his and looked at him in the eyes, "Thank you, Cloud."

He smiled. 

* * *

The fighting never ended. Even 5 years after the Planet had recovered from Meteor, the fighting was still going on.

First, the emergence of the Remnants. Then, the Deepground movement.

Cloud slashed his blade to his target, successfully slicing it into two before moving on to another one.

Group of rebels appeared out of nowhere and some of them tracked the members of Avalanche to seek their revenge, despite the fact that it was Avalanche who saved the Planet too.

Cloud looked around and saw his friends were fighting without much hardship.

He smirked to himself, 'You've picked the wrong people to mess with, amateurs.' 

* * *

"Hey Cloud, do you think that the stars can hear us?" Her sudden question caught him off guard.

They were out in a field around a campfire in Cosmo Canyon, upon Marlene and Denzel's request to visit Nanaki.

Cloud glanced up to the sky, "Maybe."

She had a satisfied look on her face as she continued to look at the night sky as Nanaki was telling some folk stories to the kids.

"It feels like they are still watching over us even after all these years," Tifa said in a low voice, but loud enough for him to hear.

Cloud just remained silent. He understood who she was referring to without having to ask.

It was just like this night when she made him promised that he would come to her rescue once he became famous.

It was also a night like this before their final battle with Sephiroth that changed their lives forever. And tonight, he still has her by his side, under the starry night.

"Of course they are," Cloud replied and Tifa turned to him. "You know how bossy Zack was."

He earned a soft chuckle from her.

"That's right. Zack is Zack. And together with Aerith, they make quite a pair," she looked back up to the sky.

Cloud followed her gaze.

"Yeah, together they were quite handful," Cloud agreed. "Just like us."

He could see she was trying hard not to blush but even with the fire burning in front of them, her cheeks burned a light colour of pink.

"Cloud, you wanna come along to see Nanaki's house?" Denzel called from the opposite side of the campfire.

He turned slightly to Tifa who seemed too engrossed with the star gazing, or pretending to be.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll keep Tifa accompanied," Cloud replied and he didn't need to look at her to know that she turned another shade darker.

'Smooth, Strife.' He patted himself in the back. 

* * *

He was sure they got everything under control as the numbers of rebel started to go down and the odds were in their favour as well, despite them being outnumbered earlier.

Then, another wave of rebels entered the battlefield. This round they carried long range weapons and were heavily armed.

Yuffie and Vincent switched their positions so that they could have a better place to control the new wave of rebels. Barret was still backing Cid and Tifa up.

Cloud took immediate notice of one of the rebels pulling out grenades and just randomly threw the grenades out and they went off in a couple of seconds.

The most dangerous thing in a battlefield was not a trained soldier, but an inexperience idiot who had no idea what he was doing.

After taking care of the ones surrounding him, Cloud dashed to the one with the grenade.

With the random explosions going on around the battlefield, Cloud had to really strain his eyes to see passed the smoke to make out the silhouette of the grenade holder.

"Cloud, watch out!" He heard Tifa called and from the corner of his eyes, he saw a rifle pointed towards him, but only for a moment.

As the rifle shooter saw Tifa making her way towards him, he changed his target towards her.

Tifa ran in zig zag to confuse the shooter who just shot randomly and once she reached him, one powerful kick touches his chin and off the guy flew onto his back.

'That's my girl,' Cloud smirked to himself as he slammed his sword towards the one with the explosives.

And then it happened so fast.

He only saw it as the bullet made its way towards her, aiming for her back and in a split second, she stumbled. She was hit but she managed to turn around with an angered look on her face as she sprinted to the shooter.

The second one hit her back and came out through her abdomen and another one and another one. Then, an explosion followed that sent her a few feet away from where she was standing and she fell down immediately, not moving.

"Tifa!" Yuffie called and his blood turned cold.

Like in automation, he ran and slashed everything in his way, his eyes set on her unmoving figure.

Each of their friends increased their attack rate and closed their distance to her as fast as they could.

Cloud was the first to arrive and he saw both the shooter and another grenade man were already down, thanks to Yuffie and Vincent.

"Tifa!" Cloud caller her as he picked her up. Her whole abdomen was already covered in thick blood, drenching a part of her face and staining his clothes as well. He pushed her hair that covered her pale face.

"Tifa, open your eyes!" He commanded again but no response from her. "Tifa!" He was already cradling her. There was no sign of life in her.

He had sworn to himself that he'd never cried again for a fallen comrade after Zack but that night he lost it.

Cloud shook her body in a futile attempt to wake her up and only stopped after Barrett snapped him out of it.

"Wake up, please!" He begged to no one.

Vincent and Cid followed behind Barrett, indicating the battle had already ended.

Yuffie was the last to arrive with a really foreign look on her face. An expression he'd never seen before on the ninja's face. Immediately Yuffie began activating a few materias and tried to revive her but to no avail. "Come on!" She sounded frustrated with herself.

"No, no! Not you Tifa! Please, not you!" Cloud cried as he tried to look for any sign of life on the woman lying in his arms. He didn't care he was covered in her blood. He didn't care of the eyes that were watching him. He didn't care about anything.

"Cloud..." Yuffie's voice was barely a whisper before she herself broke down, losing her composure.

That night, Avalanche lost a comrade, a fighter. Yuffie lost a sister but to Cloud, he lost his life, which Tifa took together with her. 

* * *

"C'mon Cloud! Man up and just give the goddamn ring to her!" Cid pushed him to enter the bar as Cloud stumbled on the stairs.

Vincent opened the door for him and shoved him in without a word and closed it almost immediately.

"Damn you old men!" Cloud hissed under his breath, not wanting to alarm the person in the bar.

Luckily she wasn't in the bar. From the glow of the light from the stairs, she must be in her room.

Cloud gathered up his courage and made his way up, "Here goes nothing."

He caught her reading a book in her room while lying on her bed in a relaxed manner. Cloud smiled to himself. It was a sight that was alien to him to see her so relaxed but it was a pleasant one.

"Hey, Tifa?" Cloud called from where he was and she looked up from her book.

"Hi, you're back." Her face lit up.

He just nodded.

She rose from her bed and opened the door properly to let him in.

He stood in the middle of her room awkwardly. Tifa studied his face curiously.

"What's up?" She asked, one brow rose.

Cloud scratched the back of his head. "Um, nothing much."

Tifa didn't buy him.

"You're acting weird all of a sudden. Of course something's up," she said crossing her hands on her chest and Cloud knew there was no way for him to chicken out now.

He shoved his hand into his pocket and he gripped the item in his pocket tightly.

He took a step closer to her and she seemed to taken aback. Before she could say anything, he grabbed one of her hand and placed the item into her palm.

"I got you something."

Tifa blinked back a few times with a questioning look in her eyes. When she looked down to her palm, she smiled instantly.

"The same design as your ear stud?" She asked excitedly as she studied her ring.  
A single nod was his answer.

"Thank you so much, Cloud!" She said with that addictive smile that he had grown up to admire secretly.

She tried it on her finger and it fit perfectly. Of course it would, he'd managed to get her finger size while she was sleeping one night.

It was a tough job, considering she could still land a punch on him even as she was still asleep but it was worth it.

Then, she took his gloved hand into hers.

"Really thank you so much, Cloud." She was all smiles and even though it was night, everything felt bright.

"It's ok Tifa. It's something I want you to have," he replied, feeling the warmth of her hands.

"It'll work like a charm to ward off those persistent customers too," she added. He understood that too well.

Some people came to the bar just to see her and to hit on her. She had been politely declined but there were nights where the men could be too persistent.

Nights when he was on a long delivery, when his presence wasn't marked in the bar. It irritated him but she always assured him, she was fine.

Always the strong one, this girl named Tifa Lockhart. 

* * *

She was laid inside a casket like she was just sleeping. Her usually smooth face was marred with scratches but was cleaned and her hands rested on her stomach.

'Hey Zack and Aerith, I'm still waiting for you guys to tell her that she has no place there too,' Cloud thought to himself as he raised his head to the sky.

After a few moment of silence, Cloud looked at the girl that had been more than just a comrade for them.

She got a really peaceful look on her face.

Cloud looked at the ring still on her finger and felt a deep pang of loss in him. Ever since he gave her the ring, it had always been on her finger.

He touched her cold hands and brushed his finger over the ring.

He'd never had any more chance to see that addictive smile of hers, or the sound of her laughter and the way she liked to stand with one hand on her hips when she was unhappy with something.

He'd never feel her touch ever again.

Cloud leaned down into her coffin and brushed her cheek softly. Saying his goodbye, he placed his lips onto her cold and still lips, wishing he had done this way earlier to see her response.

Would she kiss him back or would he be decked by that powerful fist of hers for making her feel embarrassed in front of their friends?

Oh, how he would kill to know her response. One silent tear dropped from his closed eyes.

Pulling himself together he took a few steps back as the undertaker closed the cover of the coffin, sealing her beautiful face from the world, forever.

Cloud felt his hands being tugged. Marlene took his left hand while Denzel took his right, both trying their best not to breakdown the moment the coffin was being lowered into the ground.

Cloud crouched down to be level with the kids and the moment he pulled them closer, the kids sobbed and cried.

Cloud held both of them close to him and could only watch as his pillar of strength and the reason he fought to live were being covered with earth, the physical distance between them growing.

'Rest well, my angel. I'll come for you.' He closed his eyes and let the rain droplets fell onto his face. 

* * *

Everyone had their own coping mechanism. Cloud started to take over the role to run the bar, with Yuffie's help. Cid and Barret would drop by to replenish their supply. Even Vincent was around more frequently than ever.

Marlene suddenly became so interested in learning how to cook, despite her age, telling everyone she had a lot of mouth to feed.

While Denzel, though he never say anything much, placed a glass jar in the middle of the bar with a single lily in it. He replaced the flower with a new one day after day.

Even the regulars of her bar would drop by to pay their respects to her.

It was a loss that everyone felt but they don't speak about it much.

It was really late and the last customer had already left half an hour ago. Cloud closed the door and switched off the front light, a sign that the bar was closed for the night.

He blew a sigh. Running the bar wasn't as easy as he thought. Mixing the drink wasn't one of his major problems, to start with. It was when the patron of the bar would start to strike up conversations with him, telling him about their days or problems, he didn't know how to respond.

Usually he would just nod his head and made it looked like he was interested, which would earn him a small pat on his back or a smile from the customers. Certain nights, he would actually felt good about it.

Cloud went to join Vincent who was sitting in a dark corner of the bar with a drink.

The only sound that could be heard was the clinging of the glassware that Yuffie was arranging.

"You're doing okay?" Vincent's voice was nothing much than a whisper but he knew what he meant.

Their friends were worried about him and how he was coping with the sudden departure of Tifa. He heard Barret on the phone asking Marlene if he was still holding on to her stuff.

Cloud just didn't like the fact that even though she was gone, he needed to erase all of her presence. That was why he left her stuff in her room, just as she had arranged it.

"I'm fine," Cloud replied to Vincent, only to be questioned again with Vincent's deep eyes.

Cloud sighed.

"I'm really fine Vincent. You don't have to worry." Cloud managed to let out a small smile.

"I'm not gonna go back being a recluse," Cloud said again this time sounding confident. "She'd hate it anyway."

"Hmmph." Vincent decided not to push it further. He took another gulp of his drink.

"Hey you over there! Careful with the drink, you're not getting any younger!" Yuffie called from behind the bar, obviously watching the two guys conversing.

Vincent almost rolled his eyes but his lips came up to a smirk. Everyone knew Vincent never get drunk or grow old. It was just Yuffie's way of teasing him out of a habit.

"You ought to be making your move. After all this, time is not a luxury to us," Cloud said. Vincent looked perplexed.

Cloud turned to look outside of the window. "I've never thought that she'd be the one who will be leaving me." His voice was filled with regret.

"You know, with me that kept on walking out on her all this while," he tried to make light of the situation.

Vincent looked down to his glass, deep in thought.

"You know, she's not gonna be around forever," Cloud cocked his head towards Yuffie who had just finished closing the bar.

Clouds got up from his seat and nod his head to Vincent. "We don't really need any more regret here."

Vincent leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms but his eyes were deep in thoughts.

Cloud made his way up the stairs, "Lock up when you leave, Yuffie."

"Alrighty Spikey!" Yuffie replied a little too cheerful at that hour of the night.

'You're gonna thank me later, ninja.' Cloud smirked as he walked up the stairs into his room. 

* * *

Cloud was sitting at the well back in Nibelheim, enjoying the silence of the night, letting the cool air played with his hair.

It was here where they made the promise. Yet, he failed to keep the promise again.

Cloud closed his eyes, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. 'Shit. I'm sorry Tifa.'

Cloud swallowed back the lump in his throat. The cool night air turned slightly warmer and it felt as if the wind was caressing him.

He let it played with his hair, down to his cheeks and the warmth crept to his lips.

"Cloud..." it was like a gust of wind but he could hear it clearly.

Cloud held his cheek where the warmth lingered and he swore he could feel her hand there.

"Tifa..." His voice broke but still kept his eyes closed, worried of what he might see if he opened his eyes.

He held her hand tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Live on, Cloud..." This time Cloud was really sure it was her.

As sudden as the warmth had come, it turned cold almost immediately.

"Tifa!" Cloud called as he reached out for her and opened his eyes abruptly.

He looked around and realized he was in her room; probably he had fallen asleep when he wanted to close the window.

Cloud's eyes felt damped and he was breathing heavily.

That was when he realized he had been crying in his sleep.

This was going to be harder than he thought.


End file.
